Missing Hikers In U.P. Found Safe

BETE GRISE (WWJ/AP) - A man and a woman who were feared missing after a hike along the Lake Superior Shoreline in the Upper Peninsula have been found safe.

Elizabeth Hunter, 26, of Holly, and James Murphy, 22, of Fenton, were driven Friday to High Rock Bay at the eastern tip of Keweenaw in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Their plans were to hike southwest along the lakeshore to a fishery in the small town of Bete Grise. They failed to arrive Monday in Bete Grise where another vehicle was left for them.

A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, the Civil Air Patrol and searchers on all-terrain vehicles scoured the woods and Lake Superior shoreline along Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula for two hikers most of Wednesday.

The Sheriff's Department says that a search plane spotted a fire on the ground later Wednesday, and saw a man waving. It says a rescue team reached them about 45 minutes later.

Sheriff Ron Lahti told WWJ that they were concerned because "some of the area is very rough. The shoreline in place is a nice sandy beach,  but then in place you'll get a large stretch of rock ledges and cliffs where you cannot walk the beaches at all, you'd have to go up into the woods."

"The problem with those areas in the woods, it's no better. It's very thick cover, swampy in some area," Lahti said.

The Associated Press contibuted to this report.